St Jude Medical’s CardioMEMS heart failure (HF) system has been added to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines as a directed therapy management and monitoring tool for heart failure patients. The new 2016 ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure this year include pulmonary artery pressure monitoring with the CardioMEMS HF system.

Clinical data from the CHAMPION study was used to establish this Class IIb recommendation for the CardioMEMS HF system within the guideline directed therapy, according to a press release.

The data supporting this decision include evidence based on the CHAMPION study, and applies to all Class III heart failure patients regardless of their ejection fraction, according to the release.

“We are very pleased to see the CardioMEMS HF system was included in the guidelines and congratulate the European Society of Cardiology for working to make this technology more widely available to benefit patients living with heart failure,” says Philip B Adamson, medical director and vice president of medical affairs for St Jude Medical.

The CardioMEMS HF system is the first and only CE mark approved heart failure monitor that, when used by physicians, has been shown to significantly reduce heart failure hospital admissions and improve the quality of life in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III patients. Long-term, prospective data published in The Lancet supports the effectiveness of the CardioMEMS HF system at reducing heart failure hospitalisations by demonstrating the system can provide physicians with the haemodynamic data to proactively manage their heart failure patients.

The CHAMPION trial originally demonstrated a statistically and clinically significant 28% reduction in the rate of HF hospitalisations at six months, and a 37% reduction in HF hospitalisations during an average follow-up duration of 15 months.